Study Helps Buildings Slash Energy Use

The Department of Energy released its net-zero energy initiative in commercial buildings this August. Not even three months later, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Commercial Buildings team, under the direction of DOE’s Buildings Technology Program, released a study outlining ways for some commercial buildings and grocery stores to reduce their energy by 50 percent.

The study is split into two PDF files, each containing around 200 pages of design elements to achieve at least 50 percent reduction of energy for medium-sized (requiring 1.76 watts per square foot) business buildings and any grocery store.

The study supports the Net-Zero Energy Commercial Building Initiative – which calls for the production of market-ready, net-zero energy buildings by 2025. The building initiative is just one aspect of the department’s umbrella initiative, which is to attain net-zero energy sometime in the foreseeable future.